Although most others will cringe when they hear this, we breezed through Palermo on our way from Cefalu to Marsala. We will definitely be back, but as everyone finds, you have to pick and choose how to spend a limited amount of time, so this was one of our ways of doing that.
We don’t do tours. We like to explore ourselves, but we were intrigued by this food tour https://www.streaty.com/city/street-food-tours-in-palermo . With a little apprehension we signed up and met Angelo in the square in front of the Teatro Massimo. He was a delightful, passionate ambassador to the city, its neighborhoods, its history and its food. He masterfully wove the historical significance, old and new, into the tour and its tastings. He encouraged us all to get out of our comfort zones and be delighted with the new experiences Palermo offers visitors.
We appreciated seeing Palermo through Angelo’s eyes and were excited to experience such a safe, culturally rich and diverse city.
On a side note, the Streaty staff were very attentive to all of my questions by email. We were coming into town and needed parking suggestions and some encouragement for driving. They quickly offered all we needed. We found driving in Palermo to be similar to driving in NYC and Boston. We found Napoli much more challenging.